Because the demonic folks were announcing Jesus was the Messiah, and this tended to excite the multitude who had come to Capernaum to celebrate the annual Jewish holy days in the autumn of that year, Jesus’ enemies accused him of being demonic, himself. The Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem (Mark 3:22; cp. Matthew 12:24) accused him of casting out demons and healing folks through the power of evil, only to have other demonic folks declare him the Messiah. Jesus responded to their slander with parables,[1] which had the effect of concealing the meaning of his words.
Although most folks today like to take Jesus’ words literally, and, thus, create a literal satan and literal evil spirits, nevertheless, the scriptures are silent, as far as when and how these beings were supposed to have come to exist. Since God creates only things that are very good (Genesis 1:31), then such creatures would have had to have rebelled against God at some time in the past. However, there is nothing in the scriptures that describes the creatures themselves or the rebellion that was supposed to have taken place. Nevertheless, if we receive what Jesus says in the context of a parable, then it should be clear that he wasn’t speaking literally when he spoke of them. His words were allegorical (Mark 3:23).
Beelzebub was the god of Ekron (2Kings 1:2-3, 6, 16), a city of the Philistines. Some scholars believe that the gods of one nation were the demons of its neighboring nations. So, in this context, believing demons are evil sentient beings is to believe the gods of the gentiles were real gods who had lives of their own and exercised great power. So whatever Jesus meant by mentioning Satan and demons, he wasn’t offering credence to the idea that they were actual living creatures with great power (Deuteronomy 4:28).
Jesus formed his argument around the words of his enemies. How can the enemy cast out himself? What might that look like, if it could be done? Put another way, what enemy would destroy his own kingdom in an effort to advance the power of his kingdom, and if he destroyed his kingdom, what kingdom could he be advancing? The whole idea of casting out demons through demonic power is illogical (Mark 3:23-26).
Next, Jesus presented the parable of the Strong Man and his house (Mark 3:27). Jesus was using a play on words at this point. Beelzebub means lord of flies, and the Jews liked to use a play on names as a way to discredit or demean a hated enemy. For example, the hated Antiochus Epiphanes (meaning light manifest) was called Antiochus Epimanes (i.e. mad man) by the Jews. As this pertains to Beelzebub, the original word was probably Beelzebul, which means lord of the house, or in other words, the lord of the house of the Philistines (2Kings 1:2-3, 6, 16). According to Jesus’ parable, the lord or strong man of the house was not as mighty as he had shown himself to be, because Jesus was spoiling the strong man’s goods. The house, Jesus had been spoiling was the House of Judah—the land of the Jews, and by the rulers own argument they believed in the god and power of Beelzebub, who, in effect, Jesus implied was their god.
Many folks, today, try to make Jesus’ words in Mark 3:28-30 to be an unpardonable sin,[2] as though Jesus’ sacrifice upon the cross was not powerful enough to forgive this particular sin. In other words, there exists a rock that God can’t lift in the eyes of these otherwise well-meaning brethren. What Jesus was actually saying is that there is a sin that cannot go unpunished. This doesn’t mean it can’t be forgiven. Some sins, nearly all sins, can be forgiven outright, without any punishment. Repentance is all that’s needed to receive the Lord’s grace. However, there also exists a sin that cannot go unpunished. It is a deliberate sin, a sin that one commits in order to save oneself from another sin—it’s a cover-up sin that takes God out of the equation. Rather than go to God for forgiveness, one doesn’t repent, and instead covers his sin with yet another in an effort to maintain an outward portrait of innocence. David committed such a sin, and when he finally repented, the Lord told him that the sword would never be removed from his house (2Samuel 12:10). He was forgiven, but he had to be punished for the sake of honoring justice and not despising God.
In the context of Jesus’ argument, the scribes and Pharisees, who accused him of using evil power to heal and cast out demons, would have to be punished. Although nothing can be determined on an individual basis through scripture, history does record that the rulers of the Jews were punished with the nation in their rebellion against Rome. They despised the Lord, their God, by accusing Jesus of operating in the power of evil instead of the power of God, calling good evil. Therefore, they, who did so much evil, while appearing good in the eyes of the nation, had to be punished with the people whose approval they craved.
_____________________________________________________
[1] Some scholars try to say Jesus at this time affirms the existence of a spiritual kingdom that is evil and bent on destroying mankind, whose leader is Satan. However, how does Jesus do this, if the text clearly says he is speaking in parables? According to the logic of the scholars who wish to say Jesus affirms a literal Satan and a literal evil spiritual kingdom, then the Kingdom of God must be a literal seed that is sown into the ground (Mark 4:26-29). If Satan and his kingdom are literal, then the Kingdom of God must be a literal seed. On the other hand, if Jesus is speaking in parables, then nothing he says should be taken literally, but, rather, it has a spiritual message.
[2] See my earlier study in the Gospel of Luke, “What About the Unforgivable Sin?”
Smoodock's Blog 